2. The main aim of this
presentation is to share my
interest about Margaret
Thatcher – the first female
British Prime
Minister, leader of the
Conservative Party, and at
the time the longest
serving PM since
1827, governing from
1979 – 90, and her way to
success.
Queen Elizabeth II and Margaret Thatcher
3. «What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a
flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it
is not enough, that you have got to have hard work
and a certain sense of purpose».
Margaret Thatcher
4. Thatcher's home and early life
Margaret Thatcher (Margaret
Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher
of Kesteven, née Roberts) was born
on October 13th 1925 in Grantham
to Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. The
Roberts family ran a grocery
business, bringing up two daughters
in a flat over the shop.
Margaret Thatcher's home and early
life in Grantham played a large part
in forming her political convictions.
Her parents were Methodists and
her father was a local councilor.
5. «I just owe almost everything to my father and it's
passionately interesting for me that the things that I
learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are
just the things that I believe have won the election».
Margaret Thatcher
6. Education
Margaret Roberts attended
Huntingtower Road Primary School
and won a scholarship to Kesteven
and Grantham Girls' School.
From there won a place at
Oxford, where she studied chemistry
at Somerville College (1943-47). Her
tutor was Dorothy Hodgkin, a pioneer
of X-ray crystallography who won a
Nobel Prize in 1964.
7. The beginning of political career
After graduating, Roberts moved to
Colchester in Essex to work as a
research chemist. She joined the local
Conservative Association.
In her mid-twenties she ran as the
Conservative candidate for the strong
Labour seat of Dartford (1950 and
1951), winning national publicity as
the youngest woman candidate in the
country.
She lost both times, but cut the Labour
majority sharply enjoyed the
experience of campaigning.
8. Marriage and motherhood
In Dartford she met Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy
businessman, whom she married in December 1951. Denis funded his
wife's studies for the bar; she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and
specialized in taxation. The same year her twins, Carol and Mark, were
born.
9. Secretary of State for Education and Science
Margaret Thatcher was elected to
Parliament in 1959 as Member of
Parliament for Finchley, a north
London constituency, which she
continued to represent until she was
made a member of the House of
Lords (as Baroness Thatcher) in
1992.
The Conservative party under
Edward Heath won the 1970 general
election, and Thatcher was
subsequently appointed Secretary of
State for Education and Science.
10. The leader of the Opposition 1975–1979
The Heath government experienced difficulties with oil embargoes and
union demands for wage increases in 1973, and lost 1974 general
election. Labour went on to win a majority in 1974 general election.
Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in
doubt. Thatcher became party leader in 1975.
The Labour government faced public unease about the direction of the
country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79.
A general election was called after James Callaghan's government lost
a motion of no confidence in early 1979.
11. The Conservatives won a majority in the House of
Commons, and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's
first female Prime Minister.
12. «If you want something said, ask a man; if you
want something done, ask a woman».
Margaret Thatcher
13. 1979-1983: Prime Minister – First Term
The new government pledged to check
and reverse Britain's economic decline.
Direct taxes were cut, indirect taxes
were increased. By the end of
Thatcher's first term, unemployment in
Britain was more than three million
and it began to fall only in 1986.
Inflation was checked and the
government created the expectation
that it would do whatever was
necessary to keep it low.
14. The Falklands War
Political support flowed from this
achievement, but the re-election of
the government was only made
certain by the Falklands War. The
Argentine Junta's invasion of the
islands in 1982 was met by Thatcher
in the firmest way.
Although she worked with the US
administration in pursuing the
possibility of a diplomatic solution.
When diplomacy failed, military
action was successful and the
The cover of Newsweek magazine, 19
Falklands were back under British
April 1982, depicts HMS Hermes, flagship control by 1982.
of the British Task Force.
15. 1983-1987: Prime Minister – Second Term
The economy continued to
improve during the 1983-87
Parliament and the policy of
economic liberalization was
extended. The government began
to pursue a policy of selling state
assets.
The British privatizations of the
1980s were the first of their kind
and proved influential across the
world.
16. The Anglo-Irish Agreement
In October 1984 the Irish Republican Army attempted to murder
Margaret Thatcher and many of her cabinet by bombing her hotel in
Brighton during the Conservative Party annual conference.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 was an attempt to improve
security cooperation between Britain and Ireland and to give some
recognition to the political outlook of Catholics in Northern
Ireland, an initiative which won warm endorsement from the Reagan
administration and the US Congress.
Margaret Thatcher & Ronald Reagan at Camp
David, 22 December 1984.
17. 1987-1990: Prime Minister – Third Term
The legislative platform of the third-
term Thatcher Government was
among the most ambitious ever put
forward by a British administration.
There were measures to reform the
education system (1988). There was a
new tax system for local government
(1989), the Community Charge. And
there was legislation to separate
purchasers and providers within the
National Health Service (1990).
18. Relations with the Soviet Union
The Soviets had dubbed her the 'Iron Lady' — a tag she relished — for the tough
line she took against them in speeches shortly after becoming Conservative
leader in 1975.
But when Mikhail Gorbachev emerged as a potential leader of the Soviet
Union, she invited him to Britain in 1984 and pronounced him a man she could
do business with. She did not soften her criticisms of the Soviet
system, making use of new opportunities to broadcast to television audiences
in the east to put the case against Communism.
Margaret Thatcher & Gorbachev at
RAF Brize Norton, 7 December 1987.
19. «What Britain needs is an iron lady».
«It pays to know the enemy - not least
because at some time you may have the
opportunity to turn him into a friend».
Margaret Thatcher
20. Best-selling volumes of memoirs
After 1990 Lady Thatcher remained a potent political figure. She
wrote two best-selling volumes of memoirs - The Downing Street
Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995) - while continuing for a
full decade to tour the world as a lecturer. A book of reflections on
international politics - Statecraft - was published in 2002.
21. The Attitude towards Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher remains an intensely
controversial figure in Britain.
Critics claim that her economic policies
were divisive socially, that she was harsh
in her politics.
Defenders point to a transformation in
Britain's economic performance over the
course of the Thatcher Governments.
Trade union
reforms, privatization, deregulation, a
strong anti-inflationary stance, and
control of tax and spending have created
better economic prospects for Britain than
seemed possible when she became Prime
Minister in 1979.
22. Margaret Thatcher and modern British politics
The Labour Party leadership was transformed by her period of office
and the 'New Labour' politics of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown
would not have existed without her. Her legacy remains the core of
modern British politics: the world economic crisis since 2008 has
revived many of the arguments of the 1980s, keeping her name at the
centre of political debate in Britain.
Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown
23. Critics and supporters
Critics and supporters alike recognize the Thatcher premiership as a
period of fundamental importance in British history. Margaret Thatcher
accumulated huge prestige over the course of the 1980s and often
compelled the respect even of her bitterest critics. Indeed, her effect on
the terms of political debate has been profound.
24. «I do not know anyone who has got to the top without
hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you
to the top, but should get you pretty near».
